LONDON — The UK Ministry of Defence has kick-started a program to update the British Army’s neglected Challenger 2 main battle tank fleet with at least three contractors submitting initial proposals to undertake the work.

Challenger 2 builder BAE Systems, along with rivals General Dynamics UK and Lockheed Martin UK, have all confirmed they responded by the Jan. 14 closing date to a pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) issued in December by the MoD’s procurement arm, the Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) organization.

Germany's Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, the builder of the Leopard 2 tank, was previously reported to be interested in the update program but it’s not known if the company has filed a PQQ now that buying new or secondhand tanks has been ruled out by the Army.

Company officials could not be contacted ahead of going to press.

Officially known as the Challenger 2 Life Extension Program (LEP), the update, including initial logistic support, could be worth up to £700 million (US $1 billion), said the MoD’s Contract Bulletin. The update program could also be applied to Challenger 2s operated by the Oman government, said the Contracts Bulletin.

The contractors are vying for two competitive assessment phase contracts expected to run for two years.

So, what do folks here think the Challenger 2 needs most? Adoption of a smoothbore 120mm cannon is an obvious item the article mentions, but the wish list is going to be long and there won't be enough money for all of it. So what should the British look to improve on their main battle tank?

You do realize, that the Injuns use different (one piece) ammunition? The only other countries that use the same as UK may be Jordan, Oman and ... Iran. Oh, and there was this Chieftain in Iraq recently. Not much of a market out there.

The original topic thread was "Demise of the CR2" and you can't find it because it was last added to in November and the default forum filters by date.

CLEP is simply "CR2 Life Extension Programme". Any upgrades to equipment will come only as a side-effect of the replacement of obsolete parts, unless the three potential bidders try to sweeten the pudding with freebies, for which there will almost certainly be no possibility to score points in the proposal scoring system.

However, as far as a wish list is concerned there are no limits.

Items that should happen:

- Procurement of TES kits (or equivalent) sufficient for a deployment

- New ammunition. There must be headroom to squeeze more out of the L30, simply because as far as I know the current round design is more than 10 years old.

- Engine makeover. 1500hp flat rated should be quite possible and with TES making CR2 heavier than the moon, it would be necessary.

There's a lot of other stuff - increased digitisation, sufficient datalinking for reception of tactical UAV data, etc, but my wish-list includes integration and test of at least one APS - not for permanent fitment, but to avoid having to UOR a last-gasp solution should we find ourselves needing it..

IMHO in the mid to long term, UK might purchase M1's from US (stored ones after refurbishement and modernization) or even new ones... heck I am sure that when General Dynamics won the Scout SV program in the UK, they would be double happy with UK purchasing a production license for M1A2 in the UK with all modifications required by UK MoD, like a diesel engine, perhaps a different suspension and a heavier addon armor package? It is possible.

Or eventually UK will wait for new tank developed in US or continental Europe.

It was a mistake to lose the capablity I maintain. But it would cost far more than its probably worth to rebuild the capability now. Unless we suddenly want to build a 6 division Army which I would applaud, but ranks up there somewhere along the lines of Jeremy Corbyn being the next PM, and Forest Green FC winning the FA Cup.

This. Good idea. BAOV awaits. May even be sufficient for BAON as well - British Army of Neman*

*a river in Lithuania, in Poland known as Niemen, and in certain frightening, confusing language - Memel. as in "Von der Maas bis an die Memel".